This invention relates to television advertising. More particularly, this invention relates to methods and systems for providing forced advertisements to viewers.
Television viewers are currently exposed to a wide variety of advertising when watching most non-premium television channels. This advertising is typically presented to promote an advertiser's products and services and, at the same time, sponsor or subsidize the cost of providing television programming. Television advertising in this way is generally viewed as a highly effective means of promoting products and services, but is also recognized as being very expensive.
One problem with television advertising is that television viewers frequently change channels as soon as a television advertisement appears. This act is colloquially known as “channel surfing.” Recent technologies have also facilitated skipping commercials when programs are buffered by or stored on personal video recorders which digitally store programs on disk drives. For example, when a program is stored on a disk drive of a personal video recorder, a television viewer may press a button that causes the recorded program to jump in thirty second increments and thereby skip the typical thirty second commercial.
Another problem with television advertising is that television broadcasters typically have exclusive control of the advertisements that are shown on a corresponding channel viewed by a television viewer. This prevents a television distributors, such as cable and satellite television companies, from being able to provide alternate advertising to the television viewer.
Thus, it is desirable to provide methods and systems for forcing advertisements on viewers. Such methods and systems preferably facilitate preventing viewers from changing channels away from, or skipping, television advertisements. These methods and systems also preferably facilitate providing alternative advertising from that provided by television broadcasters to television viewers.